Moscow, February 15, 2012 - Law Firm Muranov, Chernyakov & Partners has presented its ranking of major legal trends in 2011-2012. According to the company, the creation of specialized courts is the major trend in the industry.

This trend includes the creation of the court for intellectual property rights, the establishment of administrative courts and active support to mediation. These measures are designed to ease caseload of courts and improve their effectiveness. To achieve similar objectives, it has been proposed to open the procedural documents of the litigating parties to the general public. However, according to Muranov, Chernyakov & Partners, this can lead to an increase in the number of ‘closed’ processes when such documents contain confidential information.

Other key trends include massive update of the legislation of the Russian Federation in the civil sphere as well as in the sphere of state regulation of the economy. On the one hand, this is due to the need to bring domestic legislation into line with the commitments made by Russia when joining the WTO, on the other, to the finalization of the new Civil Code.

The firm’s ranking of major legal trends in 2011-2012 consists of the Top 10 Legal Developments in the Economy for 2011, Top 10 Acts of Legislation, Top 10 Legal Acts and provides a forecast for the development of the legal industry in 2012. The firm intends to prepare such ranking on an annual basis.